


icarus

by itainttreason



Category: Turn (TV 2014)
Genre: Icarus AU, M/M, benjamin tallmadge is too eager for his own good, caleb thinks the gods are messing with him, mythology AU, sackett needs a vacation, terrible bird related puns, you can only listen to "icarus" by bastille so many times before you write an au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-30
Updated: 2016-04-30
Packaged: 2018-06-05 09:02:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,734
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6698461
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/itainttreason/pseuds/itainttreason
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>in which benjamin tallmadge is mistaken for a harpy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Sackett had devised a way to escape the fortress he had designed himself. He and his aide would soar out of the uppermost window to freedom with wings composed of wax, feathers, and light wood. When he proposed this plan to Benjamin, already collecting the materials around the room, Ben sprang up to help him, his small leap nourished by a gleam of hope. Sackett had noticed that he had been moping despite his efforts to be subtle after he had denied him the idea of them fighting their way out. Sackett was far too old and Ben far too arrogant for that plan to work. He would have taken on fifteen men (he had said so himself) to free them. Ridiculous! He admired the boy's courage, but it just was not possible. He began instructing him on how to construct his own pair of wings, and then got to work, his back creaking in complaint as he settled down on his worn knees with a bucket of hot wax, feathers in hand.

Days later the wings stood completed. The room stank of wax and singed feathers, but the wings themselves glistened in the lazy afternoon sun. Sore backs and aching knees aside, Sackett was filled with a warm sense of pride. Ben, on the other hand, had found a problem near the beginning of the project but had held his tongue until he could not stand holding it back anymore and- "How are we going to wear them?"

They hadn't been provided rope. Sackett had forgotten, as rope had been such a convenient commodity, he had never missed the presence of it. He, rather morbidly, could see the reasoning behind it. 

"A good question, my dear boy. Perhaps...." He looked to the bucket of cooling wax by his foot. Oh. Oh, dear. "Well. There is one way I've thought of, but..."

"What is it?" Ben, the strident youth that he was, was immediately ready to do anything Sackett asked.

"The wax. We'd have to use the wax." Ben's brow puckered momentarily while he envisioned it and the discomfort it entailed.

"Let's do it." The guards were bringing food at any moment, and they needed to fly the coop before then.

"Come here, then." 

 

After much wincing and complaining, they both were winged creatures. 

"Now, Tallmadge, soar. If you flap too high, the wax on your wings will melt, and you will plummet to the sea. In the same way, if you skim the sea, your wings will become-"

"Waterlogged, and I'll sink. I know! Let's go!" Sackett huffed at the interruption but he understood Ben's excitement. He had been trapped too long, and now it was time for the fledgling to leave the nest. He couldn't help but worry, turning to see the prison one more time but there was a great rustle of feathers and- oh, gods- Benjamin was diving through the window like a falcon after prey.

"Benjamin!" He rushed to the window, peering down only to hear a victorious cry from above. His student was circling the uppermost point of the fortress, crowing like a rooster. He had to laugh himself just to release the massive wave of relief that had swept through him. 

"Come on, Sackett!" The call was wind blown but it urged him to the window ledge. Another one nudged him into the open air, and soon he was soaring, free. He himself gave a whoop, gliding towards the sea. He was joined by his student in a moment and they, together, approached the wide Mediterranean. As the shoreline glided past below them, the warm sun gently caressing their reddened shoulders, Benjamin began to creep slowly upwards, using the warm up drafts to drift smoothly skyward. Sackett allowed it until Ben began to dip and then shoot upwards, sure his wings would carry him. "Tallmadge!" he snapped, determined to bring him to heel. "Stop that, you're going too high!"

"Oh, come on, Sackett! I'm not even near the sun."  
"Come down, boy!"  
"Here, I'll show you. It's better up here, the air's warmer-" As he spoke, a feather spiraled in his wake, soon joined by two more. "Sackett?" His young voice was tinged with fear.  
"Come down!" Benjamin wobbled. To Sackett's horror, a feathered gob of wax dropped through his field of vision. Sackett's voice broke, "Come down, son!"  
"I can't! I can't, Sackett- Sackett, help me!"

He sounded pathetic. Like a downed nestling screeching in the face of a predator. The panic in his voice broke Sackett's racing heart. He knew he couldn't help the poor boy.

"Sackett! Please! Help- help me, Sackett, oh gods, help m-"  
The last word was drawn into a long, horrible scream as Benjamin plummeted towards the jewel waters below. The splash was a white blemish on the water that soon vanished as Sackett drifted emptily towards the other shore, knowing he would drown himself if he tried to help the boy and any help he could get would be too late.  
Benjamin Tallmadge was dead.

 

Caleb Brewster, a fisherman, was just peacefully minding his own business when what seemed to be a molting Harpy plunged into the sea by his boat. The shockwave rocked his boat and he rocked it more by running to lean over the gunwhale to see the thing sinking in a cloud of bubbles fleeing from its terrible form. He cursed softly under his breath and quickly weighed his options. Saving a Harpy might give him some points topside, but... It was a Harpy. Then again, Abraham was nearly a Harpy and they got along fine. He took a deep breath and dove into the blue.  


Heaving the body over the side of his boat, he climbed in after it and leaned over to press his ear against the chest to check for breath, for a heartbeat. Finding none, he moved to attempt revival, using the method he and his fellow fishermen were familiar with, when he was stopped instantly. The face he was inches from was the most beautiful face he had ever had the fortune of laying his eyes on. The hair splayed around the head like liquid gold, making a halo around the waterlogged body. Caleb now knew he had to save this being or be damned to his dying day. He thumped the chest three times, then bent to give breath to the poor soul. He had never been shy about this part until now, but he soldiered on and blew a breath into the mouth, and almost instantly afterward the previously comatose Harpy sprung to life, coughing up water like a leaky fountain. Caleb had to sit back as he watched the figure hack and cough. Once the feathered mess had settled down for the most part, he leaned over to ask, "Hey, hey, you're alright, just rest. What's your name, stranger?"  


The exhausted reply, "Benjamin," would stay in Caleb's brain as he rowed bemusedly home. Ben lay sleeping underneath several nets and a tarp, and he couldn't help but steal a few looks at his odd guest as dusk surrounded the boat. He had refrained from asking the question that plagued him the most, as he assumed the newly resurrected Benjamin probably would dislike being called a Harpy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if you muttered "hubris" at any time during this chapter i did something right


	2. Chapter 2

Abraham nearly fainted when he saw what Caleb cradled in his arms. After he revived a moment later, he refused to let Caleb a foot inside of his house, voice raised a panicked octave as Caleb pushed his way past the slight farmer. 

"Caleb, I have tolerated stray dogs, cats, hell, even that street urchin you brought by once, but- but-" His burning curiosity flamed up in the gap caused by his inability to properly describe what Caleb was carrying, and his voice lowered to hushed awe, "-that... What _is_ it?"

Caleb had laid Benjamin on his own cot and now was sitting beside him, waiting patiently for Abraham to settle. Once he got an opportunity to get a word in, he soothed, "His name is Benjamin, Woody, and I don't know exactly what he is but I sure as hell wasn't gonna let him drown."

"You found him in the _ocean_? Did he lure you with some witchcraft? Caleb-" he snagged Caleb's face and looked him in the eye, "stop laughing- are you under a spell?" Caleb laid his own hands over Abraham's shaking ones, their hands almost pushed off his face by his gleeful grin, the corners of his eyes crinkled with mirth. "Abraham, I hardly think he's a siren- for God's sake, he was drowning before I got to him. What siren do you know would drown?"

"One who wanted to snare a bullheaded pirate," Abe replied, taking his hands back to fold his arms stubbornly across his chest.

"You may be right," Caleb allowed, giving the appearance of taking Abraham seriously. He knew what he was about to say would send Abraham through the roof. "But I think he's a Harpy, if anything else."

He was right. The shriek that rose from Abraham started the notch-eared stray Samuel out in the yard howling. 

"Caleb! My crop is as bad as it is, and you bring a Harpy into my home?!" 

"Abe-" In one fluid movement Caleb was up and out the door with Abraham, nudging him outside while chastising, "you'll wake him- you sound like a Harpy yourself."

"I'm getting Anna! She'll make you see sense." Abe waited to see the fear of God enter Caleb's eyes as it did when Caleb threatened to get Anna after Abe got himself one fist away from a fight (Caleb was beginning to think Abe no longer heeded him when he warned him he was getting Anna merely because of how many fights the man managed to get himself into)- but he only shrugged. Abe took one more look at the prone stranger through the door, then booked it to the Strong Tavern. Caleb loved the man, but he was too much like the sandpipers that scattered at the very motion of a wave for his own good. Funnily enough, you only had to piss him off to make him as staunch as a strong-jawed mongrel. These reflections entertained his attention as he wandered back into the house to scavenge some food for the waterlogged Benjamin. 

 

The fish was almost done and he had just been fetching some water when he was startled by another ear-piercing yelp from inside the house. Samuel started howling again and he patted the stray until the dog smiled, then he turned back to the house and the mess that was Benjamin. He was awake now, wild-eyed and screaming. Caleb approached him cautiously, hands out like he was calming one of his strays, "Hey, hey, now-" 

"Sackett!" Benjamin sat ruler-straight, hands splayed on the cot, knuckles white from his grip, nearly unintelligible panicked sobs caught in his watery throat. "Sackett!"

"Benjamin- Ben, quiet down now, you're safe here-" His fingers hovered over Ben's wax-scabbed shoulders, concern written over every feature, "you're alright, Ben-" He paused as those dulled blue eyes locked onto his, panic and confusion glazing what Caleb could swear was the Mediterranean. 

"Who- where-"

"My name's Caleb, Caleb Brewster, alright?"

"Caleb..."

"Yeah, yeah, that's my name." Caleb allowed a small smile. "And you're Benjamin, yeah?"

"That's me. How-" Ben was overwhelmed, the panic ebbing and leaving cold fear and exhaustion in its wake. Tears pricked at his eyes and his voice wavered, ragged from screaming, "How do you know my name?" 

Caleb knelt by the side of his cot. "You told me. You were only awake for a few moments." 

The tension dripped out of Benjamin's frame like the dried saltwater had done hours before. His dry lips cracked as he opened his mouth to reply, to ask...he found nothing, and Caleb remembered what had taken him out of the house in the first place. 

"You want some water, Ben?-" "Benjamin." "-Benjamin?" 

"Yes." A disturbing amount of time passed before Ben remembered his manners and added lamely, "...please," but Caleb was out the door and heaving the water buckets into the house. A cup materialized and Ben had a full cup of water in his stiff hand before he knew it. "Thank you," he mumbled. Caleb sat back on his haunches, pleased, before Benjamin's nose wrinkled. 

"Is something burning?"

Caleb's brow furrowed before he let out a long-suffering groan and shuffled out to see the blackened carcass that was the fish. "Yeah," he sighed, shifting the solid mass of coal into the fire. "Dinner. But I'll find something else." 

The panic, having fled, not only left fear and confusion, but had also drained to let the sharp shards of hunger poke at Ben's gut. "Please do," he whimpered, clutching his sore belly and staring after Caleb. 

"Drink up, that'll hold you off until I find something." Ben guzzled down the water, comforted for a moment as the liquid coursed down his parched throat, mouth gummy as the moisture returned to his tongue, the top of his mouth, the back of his throat. Caleb brought him a slice of bread and some dried fish. 

"A bit modest, but it should do you good-" Caleb had hardly gotten the words out before the bread was gone, and then Ben was struggling with the dried fish. "Ben-," he was once again interrupted by a muffled " _Benjamin,_ " "Benjamin." He placed a hand on his shoulder, careful to avoid the lumps of cold wax and shredded feathers. "Slow down, you'll-"

Ben was sick a moment later, heaving over the side of the cot, for the most part avoiding an exasperated Caleb. 

"-....mmhm." To his amazement, Ben reached again for the dried fish, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. Caleb slapped it away.

"No! Slow down, you waterlogged harpy!" 

The offense on Ben's face was worth it.

"Harpy?!"

"Yeah. I'll call you a chicken next. Slow down."

The resentment in Ben's glare smoldered a hole in Caleb's knee as he sullenly chewed the fish, refusing to look at him. Caleb didn't care- he slowed down, didn't he?

"You speed up again and I'm introducing you to everyone you see as Chicken. Just relax- stay there."

There might have been a grumbled "Where _else_ would I go?" but Caleb ignored it. He had to clean up the sick by his feet. He would really have to fear Anna if she came back to this mess. He shot a warning look at Ben, who was certainly looking much better. His eyes were brighter- if angrier- but the angry wounds on his back would need seeing to. He would ask Mary for help- she always knew how to clean up a mess. Speaking of which...

 

He was halfway through mopping when Ben stiffened and footsteps sounded in the doorway. 

"Caleb Brewster-"

He whirled, hands out once again to pacify- "Annie, wait- waiwaiwait I can expla-"

"-you'd BETTER."

Abe stood behind the furious Anna Strong, smug to see Caleb was getting his just reward. He flashed a fierce look at him and he balked, but Anna caught it.

"What was that?"

"I- Abe-"

"No, Caleb, you're explaining, remember? Ignore him."

Abraham's face fell. It was so funny Caleb would have laughed, if he wasn't scared of Anna misinterpreting it.

"Fine. Well, this is Ben."

Benjamin finally piped up. "Benjamin!"

 _".....B e n j a m i n."_

"Looks like a harpy to me." Abraham's eyes were narrowed in suspicion, but they widened when Ben squawked, "I am _not_ a harpy! What _is_ it with you people?"

"Watch it, Chicken," Caleb muttered out of the corner of his mouth. Unfortunately, Anna had ears like a hawk, so he got a cuff on the back of his head for that. 

"Caleb, stop being such an ass."

"But-"

"No buts, Brewster! You brought him here so he's your guest. You're responsible for him-"

"Annie-"

"-now please go make some food, I'm sure I'm not the only famished one here." She pinned him with a stern look until he skulked out the door, regretting his act of generosity sevenfold. He did push past Abraham again, but the dig only made Abe smug and Caleb feel worse. 

"Now then, Benjamin." Anna pulled up a chair and settled in by the cot. "If you wouldn't mind, I'd like to hear what tales you have to tell."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> caleb: you're a chicken!
> 
> ben: I a m n A U G H T ! M i s s S t r o n g s e n d h i m t o t h e p r i n c i p a l ’ s o f f i c e a n d h a v e h i m E X p e l L e d !

**Author's Note:**

> if you muttered "hubris" at any time during this fic i've done something right


End file.
